Cacoethes Scribendi
by Amelia-Maria
Summary: Kurama attempts to finish studying for his tests, and Hiei provides him with a well-welcomed distraction.


I wrote this as a bedtime story for myself. I want to dedicate this story to my friend Bristol. She's amazing at roleplaying.

Prompt: Kurama doesn't _always_ have to study, right?

Disclaimer: I don't own YYH or anything.

Note: This is not a yaoi or a shounen-ai fanfic. This is friendship only. Sorry peeps.

* * *

**Cacoethes Scribendi : An Insatiable Urge to Write**

No matter how many years he had lived, Kurama always found the ningen habit of testing children in school a hassle. Of course, the red-haired youko had his days when he felt that perhaps just once, it wouldn't hurt to get a 'B' in one of his classes.

At eleven o'clock on a Thursday night after an entire afternoon of science club and demon-tracking with Yusuke, Kurama was beginning to believe that failing his tests the next day wouldn't be so bad, especially when he could simply ace them later when he didn't feel as if he were going to implode from exhaustion. After all, the failing grade would only be a shock to his classmates for about a day, and he'd get back on track when the semester started again. His eyelids were just so _heavy_.

Dropping his pencil onto his writing pad with a soft clatter, Kurama brought his hands up to his eyes and rubbed at them vigorously. The fox inside of him was petitely annoyed that his human body was tiring so easily, but the ningen side of him could care less what his other side thought. All Kurama wanted to do was crawl into his bed and sleep, but he had to finish studying...

A muffled thump outside of the window of Kurama's bedroom brought the redhead back to his senses. Recovering from his startled state, he looked over at the windowsill with a curiously wrinkled nose. He specifically remembered opening the window when he entered his room earlier, and it was currently slammed completely shut, except for the scrap of black cloth that was trapped under the sill. In a sudden bought of realization, Kurama's emerald eyes widened and he gracefully bounded over to the window.

Just as he thought.

"Kurama... are you just going to stare at me?" Hiei's muffled, drawling, and irritable voice resounded from outside the window where the fire demon had unsuccessfully tried to jump into Kurama's room, but had instead missed the sill by a fraction of an inch. Thus, the window had snapped shut with the collision onto his cloak, and the fiery demon was left hanging by his clothing outside of the fox's house. Kurama couldn't help but smile.

"Did you decide to drop in, Hiei?" Kurama said plainly, opening the window and catching Hiei's cloak at the same time to keep the other demon from falling. "I must say that you're rather unannounced." He nearly grinned at Hiei's stony glare.

"Your sense of humor is beginning to sink to Kuwabara's level," Hiei said as a greeting, though he accepted the hand that pulled him into the room. It was warm inside, the fire demon noticed. He saw a small space heater in the corner sending heat across the room that made the skin on his fingertips prickle. A near smile twitched at the corner of his mouth, and he stalked over to the appliance to make himself comfortable next to it. Kurama watched him with his previous amused smile.

"I'm trying to study, Hiei," The redhead announced, "Try not to bother me."

"Hn." A grunt was Hiei's reply as the fire koorime shut his eyes. He had sat directly in front of the space heater, crosslegged with his head tucked against his chest and his sword resting on his shoulder. Except for the weapon, Kurama thought that the little demon resembled a child.

Now, for those quadratics.

Thirty minutes of hesitant writing came from Kurama's desk as the redhead continued in his studies. Every once in a while, Kurama would pause in the midst of a formula to yawn or stretch his arms over his head. Then, the scratchy writing would continue. The companionable silence between the two demons in the room was uncomfortably pleasant for Hiei. Uncomfortable because of the determinination eminating from Kurama as he studied, and pleasant because of the gentle warmth that was being electrically pumped against his back.

"Kurama." The fire demon spoke firmly, but quiet enough that Kurama knew his attention was wanted, though it didn't necessarily have to be given.

"Yes, Hiei?" Kurama sighed, his nose merely centimeters away from the notebook as he finished off his fiftieth quadratic problem.

"You're tired." Hiei didn't phrase it as a question.

"I am tired," Kurama admitted, "But I cannot let myself get a bad grade on my tests tomorrow. It would worry my mother." It was as if the redhead could hear Hiei's smirk. "Believe it or not, Hiei, human mothers are quite worrisome over their sons. You've seen Yusuke's mother."

"She's a drunkard. It's not as if she knows who she's worrying about half the time." Hiei said stoutly, blinking his large crimson eyes rapidly to keep from falling into a doze.

"That's awful of you to say, Hiei." Kurama sent the fire demon a reproachful frown, but recieved a satisfied smirk in return.

"You are too kind to admit that it's true."

"I'm trying to study. I thought I told you not to bother me." Kurama's eyes returned to his notebook. Only forty more problems to go.

"You should sleep," Hiei said insistently, though his relaxed expression showed otherwise.

"I'll sleep when I'm finished."

"Have it your way."

The writing at Kurama's desk continued for a while, though the sounds became slower and quieter. Hiei watched as the redhead's eyes slowly began to drift shut before snapping open again determinedly. The fire demon chose not to speak up again, though he felt that the youko was going to lose all sense of consciousness very soon. And he was right.

With a clatter, the pencil in Kurama's hand dropped onto the desk, and he slumped over in his chair, deeply asleep. Before he could fall to the floor, however, Hiei was across the room and at his side to catch him. Wordlessly, the fire demon scooped the redhead up onto his shoulder and carried him over to the ningen bed in the corner of the dimly lit room. There, he laid Kurama down carefully and halfhazardly threw the blankets over him.

"Hiei...?" Kurama slurred, regaining enough consciousness to realize that he was no longer writing. He felt his blanket being pulled over his face in a silent command to shut up and sleep. So he did.

* * *

Hiei woke up sharply when he felt something soft and suffocating hit him in the face. Instantly, his hand was at his blade, and his eyes began searching for an enemy. Once he realized through his haze of sleep that he was still in Kurama's room next to the currently cold space heater, he relaxed. Over his shoulder, he glared at the electronic device. Why wasn't it warm?

"My mother came in a while ago and turned the heater off." Kurama's tired voice filled the room. All Hiei could see of the youko were a few tresses of blood-red hair spilling out from underneath the ningen comforter. Looking down at his lap, Hiei saw with disdain that Kurama had thrown his pillow at him to wake him up. It was then that he knew he had had another nightmare.

"Why did you attack me?" Hiei demanded, though he felt too tired to care about Kurama's excuse.

"I didn't attack you Hiei, I only threw a pillow. May I have it back?" Kurama's pale hand snaked out from underneath the blanket, expecting the pillow. Hiei snarled silently.

"No." The fire demon plopped the pillow down next to him and laid on it.

"Hiei..." Kurama's sigh was exasperated. "I only woke you up because I thought you would have wanted me to."

"Why would I ever need you to wake me up, Kurama?"

"You were dreaming about your eye again. You called out in your sleep for me to make it stop, and so I did. Can you honestly..." There was a pause and a soft yawn, "..._honestly_ blame me for it?"

Hiei narrowed his eyes at the comfortable-looking mound of blankets on the bed. He had called out for Kurama? Impossible. He never called out for anyone but his sister. Nevertheless, he chose to believe that the redhead wouldn't lie to him. Disgruntedly, he tossed the pillow back onto the bed, successfully hitting Kurama in the head. A grateful mumble from the bed was followed by soft breathing.

"Stupid fox," Hiei grunted before closing his eyes again.

* * *

It hadn't even been thirty minutes before he was hit with the pillow again. This time, Hiei sat up straight and growled harshly.

"Be quiet, Hiei, you'll wake my parents," Kurama droned, "You were shivering too loudly."

"Kurama, your reasons for throwing ningen weapons at me are becoming more and more ludicrous."

"Stay asleep quietly and there won't be a problem. Now come here," Kurama said, his tired voice sounding oddly commanding. Hiei blinked incredulously.

"Excuse me?"

"I said come here, Hiei. It's a ningen saying that means that one wants another to be where they are." The redhead's voice sounded amused, which only annoyed Hiei further. However, he felt that there would be a fight in store for the both of them if he didn't obey the youko just this once.

Sighing roughly, the fire demon pushed himself to his feet and shuffled over to the bedside, unable to surpress a small yawn. His eyelids felt like Kuwabara was trying to hang on them, dragging his eyelashes down against his cheeks.

"What do you want, Kurama?" Hiei asked warily, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Take off your cloak and get into the bed," Kurama said calmly, squirming over closer to the wall to make room on the bed. Hiei nearly snarled out loud.

"What, are you trying to mate me?" He accused. Kurama chuckled lightly.

"Nowhere near. I won't have you dirtying up my sheets with your dusty cloak. Human children will often sleep near their parents for comfort at night. What with the way that you were curled around that pillow for a while, I supposed that you could use some contact to put you to sleep." Kurama's voice became quieter and quieter as if he were slowly drifting back into unconsciousness again. It made Hiei's left eye twitch, knowing that the youko was being unbearably calm about the whole scenario.

"I'm not dirty," Hiei said defensively, but took off his cloak anyway, bearing the ebony tanktop he wore underneath the heavy material. With a moment's thought, he also toed off his boots and left them where they lay on the floor in secret hopes that Kurama would trip over one of them in the morning and learn his lesson for throwing things at him.

Hiei clambered ungracefully onto the bed, choosing to lay on top of the blankets. He was surprised at how warm it was. Kurama's human body had been sending out mountainous amounts of heat into the bedding, leaving the space that he'd scooted out of pleasantly warm for the fire demon.

"Comfortable, Hiei?" Kurama's tone was amused, and Hiei saw two emerald eyes peeking out of him from beneath the folds of the blanket on the other side of the bed. Stubbornly, the fire demon rolled over onto his side, making his back face the redhead defiantly.

"Not a word to Kuwabara," Hiei warned, his eyes already sliding shut.

"Not a word," Kurama promised, nuzzling back into his blankets again and yawning.

**_epilogue--_**

It was sometime after dawn that Hiei heard the most annoying sound in existence buzz next to his head. Growling lightly, he slammed his fist down onto whatever it was and closed his eyes again.

Kurama woke up around noon, feeling refreshed. After sitting up and stretching, he wondered why his alarm clock hadn't sounded that morning. Did he wake up too early?

A devastating glance at his nightstand beheld the sight of a ruined pile of mechanics that was once an alarm clock. Hiei was curled up on his side, still fast asleep.

At least he could still study for make-ups. Only the next time, Hiei would _not_ be welcome inside.


End file.
